Guinea pigs needed! I've been away from the blog for most
of the summer, cranking out a resource for anyone
interested in learning to read Scripture in Greek. Very
few people even try to learn Greek, but it is possible for
most Christians to learn the necessary basics of the
language in less than one year.

Since most of the people in America who learn about Greek
are Protestant pastors, Greek textbooks in this country
generally offer college level information at too fast of a
pace for many people. I have completed the first draft of
a slower paced and more intuitive resource for learning
Greek. If you have an interest in learning to read Greek
Scripture a simpler way, contact me. I will be
giving away beta copies of the book to a handful of people
in order to get their feedback for possible improvements.

This one has been cooking for a long time, but I
finally received proof copies of "New Creations" in
the mail this week. "New Creations" covers the
essentials of Christian faith and will help any
believer resolve a harmful habit. I have habits that
need to go away. Doesn't everyone? More news is coming
very soon as I look forward to making it available to
everyone.

I'm still hard at work on several
more projects. Stay tuned!

JUNE 2015 -
Conciliar Post

I am honored to have been accepted as a regular
contributor to Conciliar Post, an
ecumenical website which posts articles from
Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox
perspectives. I enjoyed and learned from the website
for several months before submitting what I thought
would be a guest article. The website hosts invited
me instead to contribute articles twice a month. My
first two articles went up this month, defending the
orthodoxy of two marginalized forms of orthodox
Christianity: Assyrian Christianity and
Dispensationalism. Stop by the site and browse;
there's a lot to learn and a loving tone in almost every
article.

DECEMBER 2014 -
New Release Date

I'm tardy with news updates. In November, I signed
a publishing contract with Greatest Stories Ever
Told which is led by Paul Pavao. We had been
working together on editing "Forgotten Gospel" for
months and hoped to release it on December 2nd.
Just before Thanksgiving however, Paul was
rediagnosed with cancer. He had survived an
aggressive form of Leukemia and now must contend
with Lymphoma. Thus, the December release date was
deferred until February 2nd, Candlemas for those
who follow the liturgical calendar.
I look forward to getting
"Forgotten Gospel" into hands and onto
bookshelves. Please pray God's plan for this
scandalous little book comes to pass.

SEPTEMBER 2014 -
PUBLISHER?

The details are not final,
but it looks like I will have a publishing contract
for "Forgotten Gospel"! As some may know, I had a
publishing contract for my first book,
"Desperation," but the publisher needed changes to
the manuscript I was unwilling to make, so I
self-published it. "Forgotten Gospel" and this new
publisher appear to make a much better match.
An artist is also working on a
custom painting for potential use as cover art for
"Forgotten Gospel."
While a little more editing is
still in order, my greatest hurdle at this point is
locking down endorsements. "Forgotten Gospel" deals
with the most sensitive evangelical topic of all
(the gospel) in such a challenging way that
endorsements from conventional pastors might take a
miracle. So that's what I'm praying for: the miracle
of endorsements for a book that directly challenges
the evangelical idea of "gospel."
Please pray for me to connect
with the right people in the right way to gain
endorsements for this scandalous little book.
-Thank you!

APRIL 2014 - BIG BREAKTHROUGH

After six weeks, none of my beta readers had
finished reading the book. The sign on the side of
the book-development road read, "Warning: Boring
Book Ahead!" Not knowing what else to do, I spent
the better part of a month just copy-editing while
waiting for feedback from the beta readers.
A major breakthrough
happened this week! After deciding to cut the
three most boring chapters from the middle of the
book, it finally dawned on me what was wrong. One
of the three boring chapters has now been
rewritten and moved to a better sequence. The
second boring chapter has been changed into an
appendix, and I'm now rewriting the third of the
three boring chapters to improve the consistency
of theme and the consistency of terminology.
This update may not mean much
to the reader, but it's fabulous news to the
writer. A boring-ectomy surgery has been performed
without compromising book content. Yay!
Please keep praying for me.

FEBRUARY 2014-BOOK PROGRESS

Promises
broken! I hoped to have a rough draft by New
Year's Day, but just finished the rough draft in
late January. Mike Sisson and Steve DeRidder
trudged through the roughest form of the first
four chapters and provided some harsh (and
necessarily so) criticism which was so greatly
appreciated. After revising that quarter of the
book, I sent 1/2 the manuscript to Bo Randle and
Paul Pavao. Their feedback was kinder. Hopefully
they didn't pull punches!
With a completed rough
draft, I did an initial edit and ordered editing
copies to be printed. I should have them by Feb
12th, at which point I will beg David Hicks of
King's College and the venerable Christian Flood
to join the critique process. Next stop:
christianmanuscriptsubmission.com (hopefully in
early March). Then it's off to the literary query
process.
I did invest any time in
querying my first two books. They were fairly
personal and intended for close friends, but the
new volume is different. More detail soon! Please
pray for me.

DECEMBER 2013 - NEW BOOK(S)!

Serious
thankyou's go out to Bo Randle, Paul Pavao, Mike
Sisson, and David Hicks for helping me form the
right plan for my new book . Or rather, I should
say "books." My first two books totaled about
20,000 words each (100 pages). I have grown
comfortable with that kind of length. For
comparison, I have written about 55,000 words of
material for my new book over the last year.
55,000 words would make the next book a much
thicker text than I would prefer to put in a
reader's hands.
With the help of the four men listed above, I now
plan to produce two books instead of one. The
formation of two books will enable me to bring
together two different sets of informations for
two different kinds of audiences.
I will provide more info
on my two intended audience and the crazy two-book
plan on this webpage in January. I hope to have
completed rewrites for the first book by the end
of 2013. Please pray for me to write well, write
clearly, and write engagingly. I need God's help!

OCTOBER 2013 -
HONDURAS

Two years ago, I had the
privilege of teaching prayer on the island of Roatan
as a three day conference. Each evening
approximately 100 believers from four English
speaking churches worshipped with Carolyn Long and
learned practical ways to grow in prayer.
Five prayer warriors came
from Memphis for the event, and God showed us great
favor by answering many specific requests including
several healings. At the end of the week, we served
Spanish speaking pastors with teaching and intensive
prayer.
This October several of us
will return to present another prayer conference and
pastors' conference. We will have some new teammates
from Memphis joining us to learn, practice, and
serve in prayer. Please pray for our preparations
and for a strong moving of God on Roatan. We eagerly
look forward to this prayer-adventure.

SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2013 - G.E.M.

Earlier this year, God used Brad Nelson to
introduce me to Keusi Donald. Soup Campbell of
Eikon Ministries has discipled Brother Keusi for
years, and they often travel together to teach
discipleship conferences. God connected Keusi and
I through prayer and eventually prompted him to
invite me to serve as an assistant pastor
alongside him and Dr. Eduardo Wells to plant a new
congregation in South Memphis.
Our congregation has adopted the name "God's
Expectation Ministries" based on His expection in
John 10:10 that we live overflowing lives through
His Son Jesus. GEM has begun meeting Sundays at
2PM and will officially launch September 15, 2013.
Our meetings are currently held at 4770 Cromwell
on the West end of the building, suite 104.
Cromwell is the first traffic light on Perkins to
the South of Winchester in Memphis.
Our lead pastor, Dr. Wells, has the gift of
evangelism with the heart of a shepherd. We look
forward to equipping each person to serve God's
plan in humble connection with God's people.

AUGUST 2013

Thank you for visiting!
I've recently slowed my blogging pace consider- ably
as I prepare to serve for a week in Honduras in late
October. The week in Honduras will include at least
five speaking engagements covering a wide range of
topics for four or more churches in addition to a
pastor's conference. Lots of speaking means lots of
writing in preparation, so my available time for
blogging has diminished dramatically. The likely
pace through October will be my posting new articles
several times a month rather than my norm of 1-2
articles per week.
If you would like to
receive an email notification of each new blog post,
please send an email to me at
matthew@matthewbryan.net Thanks again for
visiting the site. Please be sure to check out all
six of the anchor articles above and feel free to
peruse the archive. I look
forward to exploring more "Mysteries of the
Kingdom" and getting your feedback by email or via
Twitter @romans611 .